CHURCH of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton, has claimed on Twitter that he has received anonymous, sectarian letters concerning the furore over Protestant secondary school funding.In an update on Monday, Bishop Colton posted how he had received some "off-the-wall" and "vitriolic" letters dealing with the row.
"I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of the anonymous, sectarian letters I’ve opened today in response to Protestant schools debate," posted Bishop Colton.
When contacted by the Irish Examiner yesterday Bishop Colton declined to comment on the matter.
The Government’s decision to cut €3.5 million from 31 fee-paying Protestant secondary schools has caused a considerable degree of controversy.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny claimed last month the move was designed to "get at" Protestant schools because the department had to settle a court case involving such schools last year.
However, the Government denied such claims, with Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe claiming the €3.5m support grant was withdrawn on advice from the Attorney General that the payment was unconstitutional.
A spokesperson for Mr O’Keeffe said Catholic fee-paying schools made representations to his department at the start of this decade, based on legal advice, seeking the same funding for their schools as that paid to Protestant schools.
Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin who said he was surprised that constitutional difficulties concerning the payment of the grant had emerged so many years after the funding mechanisms were put in place over 40 years ago.
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